It's never too late to edit

I’m convinced there are at least one million reasons why non-profit staff and business owners didn’t have to worry about things like spellcheck twenty years ago. Heck, maybe even ten years ago. I’m pretty sure they had dedicated time to focus on each task, carefully choosing their words and having multiple sets of eyes on everything that was printed. Not to mention never having to manage getting great content onto a multitude of platforms, several times a day.

Now, not so much. As a former non-profit staff member and director, I know the volume of work that goes into each day. I know the endless stream of approving copy, writing ads, and oh dang, I have GOT to get this posted on social media type of thoughts. And this pace leads to the inevitable. A typo, a spelling error, a grammar mistake, or the worst….auto-correct. I’m certain this all applies to small business owners, as well!

We’re posting from our phones whenever we can, while also responding to text messages and sending emails. It’s bound to happen. So, what do you do when it does?

1. Edit! You can very easily edit a post on Facebook or Instagram. (True story – just today I had the wrong date in a post and had to edit it quickly to change it). Every time the page is refreshed, the newer version of the post will show. At the worst, a few people will have seen the mistake.

2. Type all your posts into the Notes app of your phone and then read it out loud. When you’re satisfied, copy and paste into the app you’re using. (Bonus tip - save the notes and you’ll have a great history of your posts that you can tweak and re-use!)

3. Use technology to your advantage! Whenever I type a post into the Notes, I then ask Siri to “read me my latest note.” She reads it out loud and I am more likely to catch a mistake...missing words, awkward sentences, etc.

4. Spell-checking your website can be tricky. Some platforms (like Squarespace) will show you a spell-checker but some do not. Here’s my trick. Copy and paste the text from every page on your website into Microsoft Word. It will underline the typos and then you can edit the text back on the site. It’s a super easy way to spot those pesky mistakes you may have overlooked. (I schedule this on my calendar so I don’t forget to do if often – more on scheduling coming in a future blog post!)

So tell me in the comments…do you have tips and tricks for this area? Share them with me!